Oldest shipwreck discovered off Turkish coast
Archaeologists date a wreck near Kekova to 4,400–4,700 years ago, though the dating rests on pottery rather than wood.
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A shipwreck has been found off the Turkish island of Kekova that, according to the archaeologists involved, may be the oldest known in the world. No wood from the ship itself has survived; its age has been inferred from the shape and decoration of its cargo.
The find lies near Antalya, at a depth of about thirty metres. Researchers discovered more than thirty ceramic storage vessels and three stone anchors. Based on its size and cargo, they believe it was a merchant vessel about ten metres long that transported goods across the Mediterranean.
The pots are dated to the Early Bronze Age, between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago. That is roughly the period in which the Great Pyramid of Giza was also built. Some vessels may still contain traces of the products they carried, but their precise contents are still being investigated.
An important limitation is that the wooden structure of the ship has not survived. As a result, researchers could not carry out radiocarbon dating on the ship itself. The dating is based on typology: the shape, handles, bases and decoration of the pottery are compared with finds from the same period in Egypt and the Middle East.
The researchers therefore refer to it as the oldest known shipwreck. That wording should be read cautiously. It is an archaeological ranking based on the finds reported so far; a full excavation report and independent scientific assessment are not yet available.
The site may nevertheless provide important information about early seafaring and trade. The combination of storage vessels and anchors indicates a ship that did not merely sail along the coast, but may have travelled longer routes across the Mediterranean. The find fits within a coastal area where very old wrecks have previously been investigated.
The recovered objects are being conserved. Further analysis of the clay, any remains in the vessels and the distribution of the objects on the seabed should show where the goods were made and what kind of trading network lay behind the voyage. The discovery's scientific status therefore remains, for now, that of a promising archaeological find, not a completed breakthrough.
Fact-check Approved with corrections · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The factual core was consistently reported by Euronews, BBC News and Diken. The text makes clear that the age was determined typologically and that the superlative does not yet have definitive peer-reviewed status.
- confirmed The wreck lies near Kekova off the coast of Antalya. — Mentioned by Euronews and BBC News. source
- confirmed The wreck is estimated to be 4,400 to 4,700 years old. — The same dating appears in the publicly available reporting by Euronews and BBC News. source
- confirmed More than thirty ceramic vessels and three stone anchors have been found. — Euronews and Diken report these finds. source
- confirmed The dating is based on pottery because the wood has not survived. — Diken describes the typological dating used and the absence of the wooden hull. source
1 correction(s) applied
- Was: The oldest shipwreck ever has been found.Now: Archaeologists refer to it as the oldest known shipwreck. (The claim has not yet been independently established scientifically, and the dating is based on pottery.)
Editor's note
The find, location, objects and broad dating have been reported by multiple public sources. No full archaeological report or peer-reviewed confirmation was yet available; the world-record claim has therefore been phrased cautiously.Sources
More on this in Dutch media
- NRC — „scheepswrak kekova”
- NU.nl — „scheepswrak kekova”
- De Telegraaf — „scheepswrak kekova”